326 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



the tea table with full plates, so generous and 

 fresh, and in the presence of genial company 

 we descant upon its wonderful qualities and the 

 perfection to which the horticulturist's art has 

 brought it. How singularly that one straw- 

 berry on the hill awoke the old memories of 

 former days and opened up magic vistas and I 

 saw my own boyself with others in the berry 

 field — a roistering urchin crowd, picking and 

 lunching and story-telling and laughing. 



Down below me in this wild pasture rasp- 

 berry and blackberry bushes full of promise for 

 large harvests. List for a moment as I relate 

 an experience from some of those red-letter 

 days in the berrying field. We took baskets 

 and pails and straps and the dog; dressed in 

 old clothes, straw hats and gingham bonnets 

 and out for fun and berries ; what chatting and 

 bragging and punning and giggling and noisy 

 shouts, having a good time just as young people 

 do to-day. The memory of those faces and 

 dresses and voices haunts me pleasurably. We 

 struck out through meadows into open fields 

 where was a cross old bull, and we had to watch 

 out for him and often take to our heels. The 

 berry field was large ; here were cow paths and 

 no paths, down in the glens along the brook, 

 up on side hills, near great rocks lichen covered 



